image for Santoyo Brito, Enrique

Santoyo Brito, Enrique

SCI SPEC, FLUID COLLECT
Illinois Natural History Survey
1816 S. Oak St.
M/C 652
Champaign, IL  61820

Research Interests

I am a biologist with an MSc in Wildlife Management and Conservation and a Ph.D. in Zoology. I currently serve as the Fluid Collections Manager at the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS), where I oversee the care and preservation of more than 1.3 million specimens across five major biological collections: Fish, Crustaceans, Amphibians & Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals. 

My research is rooted in behavioral ecology, with a particular focus on sociality and the evolution of social behavior in lizards, including group living, parental care, and antipredator strategies. I am also interested in understanding how climate change is shaping lizard populations over ecological and evolutionary timescales. To address these questions, I integrate immersive fieldwork with controlled laboratory experiments and historical data derived from specimens preserved in natural history collections. This combined approach allows me to examine biological patterns and processes across both space and time.


Honors and Awards

Selected Publications

  • Santoyo-Brito, E., H. Núñez, and S. Fox. 2024. Dorsal Polymorphism and Perch Height Use by Liolaemus bellii Lizards in Central Chile. Phyllomedusa 23(2):125–13 

  • Santoyo-Brito, E., S. Perea-Fox, H. Núñez, and S. F. Fox. 2021. Maternal care and secretive behavior of neonates in the highly social lizard Liolaemus leopardinus (Squamata: Liolaemidae) from the central Chilean Andes may relate to size-specific bird predation. Behaviour, 158 (2021) 195–223. 

  • Santoyo-Brito, E., H. Núñez, W. E. Cooper, Jr., and S. F. Fox. 2020. Comparison of escape behavior between solitary and grouped Liolaemus leopardinus lizards from the central Chilean Andes. Herpetologica, 76: 285–289.

  • Wiggins, J. M., Santoyo-Brito, E., Scales, J. B., and S. Fox. 2020. Gene dose indicates presence of sex chromosomes in Collared Lizards (Crotaphytus collaris), a species with Temperature-Influenced Sex Determination. Herpetologica, 76(1), 2020, 27-30.

  • Santoyo-Brito, E., H. Núñez, and S. Fox. 2018. Age estimation through skeletochronology and mark-recapture of free-living individuals in a population of a high-elevation, viviparous lizard from Chile, Liolaemus leopardinus. Phyllomedusa 17(1):101-112.

  • Santoyo-Brito, E., S. Fox, and H. Núñez. 2017. Experimental evidence for embryo retention in the high-elevation Chilean lizard Liolaemus leopardinus. Phyllomedusa 16(2): 295-298.

  • Santoyo-Brito, E., S. Fox, and M. Anderson. 2017. Sex ratio according to incubation temperatures in the Collared Lizard, Crotaphytus collaris. Journal of Herpetology, 51(2):197-201

Leadership Positions

INHS Biological Collections representative for The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC).

Links